Inside the Law: Violating Regulations in A National Park

PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — What happens if you ignore the posted regulations in a national park? A man at Old Faithful found out.

A man was caught on video wandering close to the Old Faithful Geyser in violation of the regulation that prohibits park visitors from wandering off the boardwalks in a thermal area. At one point, he laid down on the ground near the gurgling hole and later pretended to urinate in the geyser.

Hilarious.

He was repeatedly yelled at by the rangers who wanted to prevent him from being burned by a boiling hot eruption. Other than the obvious penalty of being burned by a boiling hot eruption, he learned that there are real penalties for disobeying park regulations.

Penalties vary but in general, visitors face fines of hundreds of dollars plus repayment for the destruction they cause, and can be found guilty of a misdemeanor and face jail time.

Some park rangers are law enforcement authorities; all others have the ability to detain a misbehaving visitor while law enforcement is called.

As for the Yellowstone yokel, he was arrested and cited for disorderly conduct and walking off trail. He has a court appearance this month where he can explain to a judge and to the hundreds of thousands of people who have viewed the video what he was thinking.